Rock Band Street Date Broken, Sorta

Reports from all over the ‘net claim that some retailers have broken the November 20 street date and begun selling Rock Band in all its glory. There are eBay auctions and a Cheap Ass Gamer thread citing early sales at a store in Connecticut (hey, I live there!) which caused plenty of disbelief. But, more people came in with similar reports, and everyone became convinced that Rock Band was indeed out in the wild.

Not exactly.

What’s being sold is the demo unit that stores have – not the final retail game. Retailers don’t have the game sitting in a back room or anything of the sort. Harmonix has posted on the official Rock Band forums stating that this is the demo build, and that the demo units aren’t fully functional and the game itself isn’t the full game.

I just wanted to officially talk about the sudden influx of broken street date bundles that are being sold. First of all they aren’t “real” versions of the game, they are demos for the store that are getting accidentally sold. Retailers don’t have bundles sitting in the back room just waiting for November 20th. These demo builds are kind of hobbled – for one the drums don’t have kick pedals. Some of the demos don’t have mics. And the build isn’t a full-real retail version of the game. It is hobbled a bit and, obviously, the bass drum autoplays since there is no pedal that comes with the demo.

I guess what I am saying is beware of any auctions that might show up the next few days, and please alert me to them if you see them as it is quite obviously a huge mistake. I know how badly y’all want to get your hands on the game but it is only 19 more days until it comes out.

Oh well. It really is only 19 more days, and there’s so many games out that there should be more than enough to hold you over.